chris s the president, you know, he's had interviews with npr, today he was in maryland at this university. is the president signaling that he may be getting close to agreeing to a deal that would raise this debt ceiling and that would have no tax hikes in it? >> reporter: well, he'll have to give his base something. he can't expect them to walk into this without even a symbolic tax increase. but, yes, obviously, what's happening now is the president is trying to soften the blow for his supporters being in a deep blue, very liberal state like maryland, being on a college campus be, rallying supporters in if a campaign-style event and, as you said, going on national public radio. these are all efforts on the president's part to reach out to liberals and say, look, i don't want to do a deal like this, but i have no choice so please understand me as i have to do this. martha: all right. we've got another piece of sound we want to play for everybody in relation to this. >> in order for us to solve the debt deficit problems, we've got to cut spending that we don't need, we have to eliminate pro